


Litter

by Silver33650



Series: Tarnished Ghosts and Polished Shadows [11]
Category: Fortnite (Video Game)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Fatherhood, Found Family, Gen, Murder, Regret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:47:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27783973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver33650/pseuds/Silver33650
Summary: Meowscles experiences the merits and misery of fatherhood, and still finds time to commit manslaughter. (What a guy.)
Series: Tarnished Ghosts and Polished Shadows [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923190
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Litter

Ghost House was a place of learning, nestled along the cliffs overlooking Weeping Woods. Midas had picked the location personally, wanting somewhere quiet but still close to the Agency so he could check in every so often. Even as the number of students dwindled as Shadow's reach spread across the island, he still stopped by, staring not at the recruits but at the poster on the wall with his face on it, lost in thought. 

Thus it was the opinion of Shadow that it would be the first place anyone from Ghost would think to hide, so Jules took Brutus and Meowscles with her when she went to raid the place while construction on the Authority progressed. They split up to check every room but found the place empty, though they did investigate a few mysterious noises that turned out to be nothing. Except in one case, where Meowscles and Brutus cornered one sound in the basement and were surprised to find, of all things, a small and utterly normal cat. And yet, when the creature saw Meowscles, it burst into a grin and called him _papa_.

So it was that Meowscles found himself in that most curious of predicaments: fatherhood. 

* * *

None of them were good with names, so they settled on something simple: Kit. "He's so little," Jules said, giving the kitten a cautious pat on the head. "He'll get stepped on out there for sure."

"That's what you're worried most about?" Brutus scoffed. "On this island?"

Jules rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. He can't compete like this. He needs something to move around in until he's grown."

"If he ever grows."

Kit rolled on his belly then flopped on his side and meowed. Jules gingerly laid her hand on his back, then started petting him when he started purring. She looked over at Meowscles. "You're his dad. What do you think?"

Meowscles didn't know what to think. The closest thing he'd ever had to a father had been Midas, and he was pretty sure that wasn't the best example of good parenting. He would probably be better off trying to emulate Lynx, but that didn't feel right either. Was an owner really a good analogy for a parent? "Owner" wasn't even the right word to use; it was more like "handler." (They were spies, after all.) But Meowscles knew he had to do something, because Kit had wandered over to him and was stretching up on his hindlegs, asking to be picked up. And of course Meowscles couldn't refuse him. 

Perhaps fatherhood wouldn't be so bad, Meowscles thought, as Kit licked his face. Jules was already doodling in the corner, ripping out parts of the Ghost servers and trying to piece them together. She showed off her sketch. "Something like this, see, so that he can get around. I'll have better stuff to use back at the lab, obviously..."

The lab. The very Shadow-controlled lab, run by that _thing_ that made Meowscles' fur stand on end. Affable though Chaos Agent could be, just the thought of having Kit there was enough to trigger a hiss out of him. Jules frowned. "What's wrong?"

But before he could answer, the door opened, and Jules and Brutus drew their weapons. The figure standing there was hardly dangerous, however; at least, in Meowscles' opinion. Jules and Brutus clearly thought otherwise, because they didn't lower their weapons. "You shouldn't be here," Brutus said. 

"Me? You're the ones trespassing," Lynx said. 

"In case you forgot, you lost," Jules said, stepping forward. "This is now Shadow property. Unless you want a fight, get out."

Lynx narrowed her eyes at Jules' drum gun. "You didn't."

"Somebody should've done it a long time ago," Jules spat. 

Meowscles set down Kit and stepped in between them, waving his arms. Neither side was willing to back down until Kit, oblivious to the tension in the room, rubbed his side along Lynx's legs and purred. Lynx picked him up, and he started licking her face. 

Jules scowled, but she lowered her gun. "You and cats."

"I never met one I didn't like, and vice versa." Lynx gave Kit some scratches under his chin, prompting a purr. "Can we at least talk? You can't let a little guy like this anywhere near Shadow."

Meowscles purred. At least someone was willing to see sense. 

* * *

Jules didn't like it, but she also wasn't completely lacking in compassion. "Besides," she said, shrugging, "we already won. It's not like we have any shortage of resources. But where will you guys go?"

Meowscles was perfectly fine with returning to the box factory. Brutus shook his head. "They went out of business, but there's still something we can do with the place. No Sweat Insurance is considering offering of auto insurance."

The rest of the group looked at him blankly. Brutus sighed. "Look, I know you guys don't read the briefings, but this is important. Haven't you noticed that the cars aren't always driveable?" They shook their heads, and Brutus groaned. "Kids these days. Nobody offers liability that covers anything that happens in the loop currently, so No Sweat would be the first. And if it goes through, then those cars will need gas. And lucky for us, a certain agent happened to be in charge of an oil refinery."

"TNTina?" Jules raised an eyebrow. "She said she was done, and let's be honest, Midas already did a number on the Rig before the flood made it rickety."

"Don't worry about that. Leave Tina to me," Brutus said. "But we could spare a small team from the Authority to work on construction without much notice. It wouldn't take too long to get a little gas station up and running, maybe a convenience store to boot."

"The box factory has high ceilings," Lynx mused. "It would work great as a lab."

"Well, that building would be converted-"

Meowscles growled. Brutus threw up his hands. "Fine, keep the box factory as-is. Whatever."

Lynx and Jules looked at each other. "I kind of know about machines," Lynx said. 

"Not like I do," Jules said. She flipped over her sketch and started making a list. "Brutus will go back to the lab and get what we need. We'll work here for now. Most of this stuff shouldn't raise any alarms since it's all stuff we'd need here anyway."

"You could just reuse the Ghost stuff," Lynx pointed out. 

Jules just laughed and shook her head. And honestly, Meowscles had to agree. Nothing, save the device, that Ghost had technology-wise was on par with Shadow's, and look how that had turned out. 

* * *

"This feels weird," Lynx said. She was tossing a ball for Kit to chase, but she looked wistful. "Like something's missing."

Jules snorted from the corner of the room, where she was taking apart more machines and sorting out the components. "If you mean Midas-"

"Of course I do. He's your brother." 

Meowscles remembered that; they had very similar scents. Both of them smelled like metal: Jules like steel, Midas like gold. But while Jules' scent was complemented by oil, Midas' was seasoned with salt. 

"I know you don't like him," Lynx continued, "but I can't believe you just kicked him out and left him to fend for himself."

"Midas is very good at taking care of himself," Jules retorted.

Lynx scoffed. "Don't you have any respect for what he was trying to do?"

"You have no idea what he was trying to do," Jules said. "And neither did he."

* * *

Jules got right to work when Brutus returned, with Lynx doing her best as an assistant. Meowscles tried to keep Kit out of the way, but he couldn't stay away from her work, his eyes wide as he watched each and every moving part. At first they thought he was just trying to play when he started batting at pieces, but once they let him grab a cord for himself, he started attaching them to outlets and plugging them in for himself. 

"He learns fast," Jules said, beaming, as Kit teetered atop a scooter not long after. Meowscles worried all the more how he could really be a good father to Kit, since he'd always been more interested in building muscles than machines. But he couldn't deny the fact that he felt a sense of pride watching Kit grow, and maybe that was all that really mattered. 

Jules left not long after, giving them leave to stay there until Catty Corner- Lynx had picked the name, and Meowscles had instantly approved- was finished as long as Brutus or another henchman was stationed there. They watched her grapple down the hillside back to the Authority, soaring onto the wall with the help of her owl rather than using the zipline. When they were back inside Ghost House, Brutus slammed the door shut harder than the others expected. 

"I thought she'd never leave," he groaned. "There's a much better place for you to wait, but you didn't hear it from me."

* * *

The salvagers were nice, but Meowscles could tell that Lynx was restless staying with them. She was constantly distracted, letting Kit take the lead on their projects, barely catching him in time before he made any costly errors. And there was always a grimace when she spotted the owl in the sky, where she'd cross her arms and snap at anyone who disrupted her. So Meowscles was hardly surprised when she told him she was leaving a few days later. She gave him a new radio and told him that they could contact her but didn't promise that she'd respond. He asked where she would go, and she shrugged. He didn't stop her. 

Meowscles was pretty bored himself, to be honest. The Fortilla didn't have an abundance of exercise equipment, and so while swimming was enough for the salvagers, it was not an option for him. Ocean laughed at him and splashed him, laughing harder when he sprinted up a ladder to get further away from the water. Most of the time, though, Ocean was all right, enough that he didn't mind leaving Kit with them to check in on construction of Catty Corner. He had even tried helping out on one of their salvaging runs and had been surprised to see them prioritize grabbing items from the Agency. "We found a job paying top dollar for this stuff," she'd explained. "There was a bunch of it near Ghost House that looked like it was all being thrown out anyway, so we thought- what's so funny?" But Meowscles was laughing too hard to explain. 

Not long after Lynx's departure, Meowscles tried to take a boat to Catty Corner but found every boat gone from the docks. There was one left, but Ocean was already loading it with Agency relics. He asked what she was doing. 

"Taking this stuff over to the buyer. We have a few boats' worth, so that's why they're all are gone." He hissed. She rolled her eyes. "Why don't you just take a shark?" He cocked his head. Ocean smiled. "You've never tried before?" He shook his head. 

She grabbed a fishing rod. "Well you're in luck, because I'm the best at hooking them around here."

* * *

It took him a few tries, and he didn't last very long before the shark got away from him, but Meowscles had to admit it was fun. He made Ocean swear she wouldn't let Kit give it a try. Ocean laughed but still held out her pinky and promised she wouldn't. 

Once she was gone, Meowscles gave it another try. It was a lot easier the second time. Steering was still tricky, and he ran over a lot of things: fishing spots, other sharks, a raft bearing a familiar figure that he might have been aiming for. But only a little. The guy was probably fine. Probably. 

Meowscles used the opportunity to see how things were going around the island. He went back past the Fortilla, where Ocean was back with a familiar face. She knocked him out, much to Meowscles' surprise. He waved, and she waved back. 

Things were changing on the island, or rather, people were adapting. New faces, old faces, faces that were familiar but different. There was no stopping the flood anymore; now it was a matter of making the best of it. And the island was: cookouts, motorboat races, insurance payouts. 

He saw the Authority, where the cement had not yet dried. Pleasant Park, supported by buoys and surrounded by windmills. Sweaty Sands, its beaches made of garbage now. The Fortilla didn't look so bad in comparison anymore. 

Brutus was waiting for him when he got back, to let him know that Catty Corner was ready. But Brutus wouldn't let Meowscles slink off, sensing he was hiding something, and Meowscles sheepishly admitted what had happened. 

Obviously, this did not go over well. " _YOU DID WHAT?!_ " Loud enough that everyone in the Fortilla looked over. Meowscles cowered and whined. Brutus put his palm on his forehead and took a deep breath. Then another. Then a few more. 

"Um." Ocean had come up behind them. "If I could interrupt? People on the island have a funny habit of reappearing, don't they?"

Brutus stared at her. "You have a point." He sighed. "But they're not always the same."

* * *

Kit wasted no time in setting up a lab in the old box factory. He spread his parts out across the belts and started building crude robots that sparked and stuttered. Meowscles found himself constantly worrying: what if Kit shocked himself, or choked on a plug, or worse? But Lynx didn't have any concerns every time she checked in, whether by video or in person. 

"Nice job! These look great!" Lynx said, inspecting the robots. "Although their aim doesn't seem much better than most henchmen." She slapped a hand over her mouth. "Don't tell Brutus I said that."

Brutus was impressed with Kit's work too, enough that he brought gifts. "A perfect loadout for a young one," he said. "A shockwave grenade launcher to send them away, and a charge shotgun in case they get too close." They watched Kit blow the head off one of the robots with pride, although Meowscles couldn't help but feel a little unsettled. Brutus scratched behind his ear to reassure him. "It's the way of things around here," Brutus said. "And if anyone asks, you didn't get these from me."

Obviously. Meowscles watched Kit chase after intruders around Catty Corner from his office and couldn't help but smile every time someone met the business end of the mythic shotgun, or flew out over the cliff into the river. The convenience store did good business regardless, and even more so when Brutus called to report that the gas pumps would work. Meowscles saw plenty of faces come and go, including a few he recognized. Rarely, they had lunch at the picnic tables, while Kit did repairs in the background and they had to shout over the sounds of drilling and blowtorches. 

Tina and Skye would recount their latest stunts, usually involving flying off a cliff or rolling the car around a turn. (At least once they had done this within Catty Corner itself, to Meowscles' disdain.) Then Lynx would discuss her latest updates on trying to find Midas, of which there were always none, and Tina would roll her eyes and Skye would either scowl or sigh, depending on her mood. 

And Meowscles wouldn't say anything, because he didn't want to know how they would react. Would Tina laugh, or would she be upset? Would Skye smile, or would she scold him? The only person whose reaction he was certain of was Lynx's, and that was one outcome he absolutely wanted to avoid. Because although it had been nice to get even for the complete radio silence he'd gotten after being kicked out of the Yacht, there was still a part of him that missed his owner. He had a feeling Midas would like Kit. _Another engineer in the family,_ he would say proudly, moments before finding new and exciting ways to exploit that skill. So maybe it was good the man was missing after all. 

Still, Meowscles was pleasantly surprised when the message came. Even Tina and Skye heard it, and Lynx too, although she looked more concerned than surprised. He was shocked when she said she wasn't going. "Something's wrong," she said. "And besides, you'll want someone to look after Kit, right? Especially with that rift in the sky overhead?"

He was worried about that, more than what he might find at the Fortilla. So he left Kit in Lynx's care and got in the car with Tina and Skye, wondering whether it was time to face the music or if maybe, just maybe, he would get a chance to apologize. 


End file.
